How to Choose a Children’s Book, Part 4 – Attractive Illustrations

This is the fourth in a series of articles on choosing a children’s book. Last time, I talked about choosing books with themes that appeal to children. In this article I will discuss the place of book illustrations in making it appealing to a child, and try to give some guidance on what to look for in children’s book illustrations. However, I must say up front that there is a lot of room for difference of opinion about what makes book illustrations attractive, so please take my guide as applicable only “for the most part”; there will be many exceptions, due to a certain amount of subjectivity inherent in any aesthetic judgment.

My main point: the illustrations in a book are perhaps the biggest part of what makes a book attractive to children, especially children under the age of eight. In fact, recently when I was rereading Hello, Cat! In preparation for writing an author spotlight on Ezra Jack Keats, the images of the mint green ice cream on Archie’s dark face and of Peter’s dog, Willie, licking the ice cream, jumped out like vivid memories of my own childhood. My parents had read the book to me when I was little and I still remember the images over 30 years later! I have had similar experiences reading Maurice Sendak’s In the Night Kitchen to my children. The point is that engaging illustrations are almost always what focus a young child’s interest and attention in a book, often in surprisingly enduring ways! Without strong illustrations, young children can lose interest in a book, even if the story is excellent.

Now, some guidance. From my point of view, there is no deep mystery in choosing books with illustrations that are attractive to children: in general, if you think the illustrations are attractive and interesting to look at, a child will too. For example, children and adults alike will delight in Jerry Pinkney’s delightful illustrations in The Lion and the Mouse. However, there will be some exceptions. For example, many children will not enjoy particularly dark, scary, or abstract illustrations, so if you are an adult with such aesthetic tastes, you should take this difference in taste into account when choosing children’s books.

Like themes in a book, illustrations with content that connects with a child’s experience and interests are more likely to make the book engaging. This criteria won’t be difficult to meet, however, as if you find a book with appropriate themes, the content of the illustrations will probably still be related to the theme (see my previous article on choosing books with attractive themes for more information). details here).

Children in the infant to 2-year-old age category will likely respond better to simpler, more concrete illustrations than very complicated or fanciful illustrations. Bold, attention-grabbing colors are also often especially appealing to young children. Helen Oxenbury’s Clap Hands is a book with illustrations that embody these characteristics of simplicity, concreteness and bold colours, making it an especially good example of illustrations appropriate for young children. At best, illustrations with a lot of complexity and wild imagery will be lost on a young child; at worst, such illustrations could cause her to lose interest in the book.

However, slightly older children, in the 3-5 and 6-8 age categories, respond very well to complex, detailed, and more whimsical illustrations. For example, my children (now six and eight years old) love the Graeme Base books in large part because of the intricate and detailed illustrations. In Animalia, Base includes his amazing illustrations with objects and details that my children love to look for; on some occasions we have spent hours going through his beautiful and detailed artwork.

Finally, while illustrations become less important as children get older—for example, a good story alone might well sustain a 9- to 12-year-old—illustrations can still help tell a story or illuminate the mood. content of a book for a child older child Brian Selznick’s The Invention of Hugo Cabret is an example of a book for children ages 9 to 12 and up that makes tremendously effective use of illustrations. Part novel, part silent film, there are stretches of the book where Selznick uses only haunting black-and-white illustrations to tell the compelling story. The resulting effect is charming.

In the next article in this series I will continue to discuss the particular factors that contribute to a book’s subjective appeal, that is, the considerations that make a book attractive to a child, assuming the role a good story plays in engaging children. to a book, and how adults can identify books with engaging stories.